U.S. v. Magluta
| Decision Date | 27 July 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. 03-10694.,03-10694. |
| Citation | 418 F.3d 1166 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Salvador MAGLUTA, a.k.a. Sal, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit |
Jack M. Denaro, Jack M. Denaro, P.A., G. Richard Strafer, G. Richard Strafer, P.A., Miami, FL, Bruce Rogow, Bruce S. Rogow, P.A., Fort Lauderdale, FL, for Defendant-Appellant.
Madeleine R. Shirley, Anne R. Schultz, U.S. Atty., Miami, FL, for U.S.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Before CARNES and COX, Circuit Judges, and MILLS*, District Judge.
In August of 2002, a jury convicted Salvador Magluta of twelve counts: eight counts of laundering drug proceeds, and one count each of conspiracy to launder drug proceeds, conspiracy to obstruct justice, obstruction of justice by bribing a witness, and obstruction of justice by bribing a juror. The jury also returned a special forfeiture verdict requiring Magluta to forfeit $15 million in currency, and also some real property.
In January of 2003, the district court sentenced Magluta to 2,460 months (205 years) in prison. The total sentence was rang up this way: 240 months on each of the eight substantive drug proceeds laundering counts; 240 months on the conspiracy to launder count; 60 months on the conspiracy to obstruct justice count; 120 months on the obstruction by bribing a juror count; and 120 months on the obstruction by bribing a witness count. Each sentence was made consecutive to every other one.
Magluta asserts that his convictions on a number of the counts must be reversed and also that his sentence was incorrectly calculated. First, he contends that his convictions on all nine of the money laundering counts (eight substantive and one conspiracy) must be reversed on collateral estoppel grounds. The basis for this contention is that six years before this trial he was acquitted of substantive drug offenses, and evidence of those offenses was used to prove the money laundering charges in this trial. Second, Magluta contends that the evidence was insufficient to support his convictions on the eight substantive money laundering counts.
Magluta's third and fourth contentions attack his conviction on the obstruction of justice through juror bribery count. He argues that it must be reversed because the district court erred in admitting certain out-of-court statements of a bribed juror under the co-conspirator exception to the hearsay rule contained in Fed.R.Evid. 801(d)(2)(E). He also argues that this conviction must be reversed because the district court did not give a special unanimity instruction geared to the identity of the juror who was allegedly bribed.
Fifth, Magluta contends that documentary evidence vital to several of his convictions was seized and admitted at trial in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights thereby tainting some of his convictions. If we agree, he asks that we remand to the district court with instructions for it to determine which of his convictions were tainted by this assertedly erroneously introduced evidence. Finally, Magluta makes several arguments that his sentence was incorrectly calculated. We will address each of these six major contentions in the order we have listed them.
Magluta's attack on his money laundering convictions in this case centers around his 1996 acquittal on all of the twenty-four drug-related counts against him. In that earlier case the district court granted judgments of acquittal on seven counts, and the jury acquitted Magluta of all of the remaining ones. Among the charges for which Magluta was acquitted in the earlier trial were: operating a continuing criminal enterprise from January 1978 through April 1991; conspiring to import and distribute cocaine during that same period of time; and engaging in a number of substantive drug importation and distribution offenses from 1986 through 1989. The continuing criminal enterprise count in that earlier case incorporated all of the conspiracy and substantive drug offenses that were separately charged in that case.
Magluta contends that the 1996 acquittal established that he was not involved in drug offenses during the periods of time charged in that case, which include the times when the crimes charged in this case took place. His position is that the government was collaterally estopped from introducing in this case evidence of drug offenses allegedly committed during the periods of time covered by the charges in the first case. The district court disagreed, and so do we.
The government did introduce in this case evidence of criminal activity for which Magluta had been acquitted in the earlier case. The money laundering conspiracy charged in this case involved criminal activity beginning in January 1979 and extending through December 2001, and the substantive money laundering charges involved criminal activity that occurred in October and December 1998. In proving those charges in this case, the government introduced evidence of illegal drug activities that had taken place between 1978 and 1991, which is the period of time alleged in indictment in the earlier case where Magluta was acquitted.1 The government used evidence of that criminal activity in order to establish in this case the "specified unlawful activity" element, 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(1)(B)(i), of the money laundering charges against Magluta.2
"The doctrine of collateral estoppel is a narrow exception to the Government's right to prosecute a defendant in separate trials for related conduct." United States v. Brown, 983 F.2d 201, 202 (11th Cir.1993); see also United States v. Garcia, 78 F.3d 1517, 1521 (11th Cir.1996). Collateral estoppel "bars a subsequent prosecution only where a fact or issue necessarily determined in the defendant's favor in the former trial is an essential element of conviction at the second trial." Brown, 983 F.2d at 202; see also Garcia, 78 F.3d at 1521.
Applying the collateral estoppel doctrine requires a two-step analysis:
First, a court must decide whether it can ascertain the basis of the acquittal at the first trial. More precisely, a court must determine whether the jury's verdict of acquittal was based upon reasonable doubt about a single element of the crime which the court can identify. [Second], the court must then decide whether that element is also an essential element of the crime for which the defendant was convicted in the second trial.
Brown, 983 F.2d at 202. Garcia, 78 F.3d at 1521 (quoting Brown, 983 F.2d at 202). The burden of persuasion is on the defendant as to both steps of the analysis. Id.; Brown, 983 F.2d at 202.
As for the first step, Magluta argues that the basis of his 1996 acquittal was that he had ceased all drug trafficking activities in May 1980. This has to have been the basis for his acquittal, Magluta says, because it was the only defense he put forward to the crimes alleged in his 1996 trial. We can assume without deciding that Magluta is right about this point, and thereby satisfies the first step of the collateral estoppel test, because he does not satisfy the second one.
The second step of the collateral estoppel test requires Magluta to establish that the elements of the crime on which the prior acquittal was based are also essential elements of the crime for which he was convicted at the second trial. See Garcia, 78 F.3d at 1521; Brown, 983 F.2d at 202. That is to say, Magluta must show that the elements of the drug offenses which led to his acquittal in the 1996 trial are essential elements of the money laundering offenses for which he was convicted in this case.
Even if we accept for present purposes Magluta's premise that his 1996 acquittal established he was not involved in the illegal drug activity with which he had been charged in that earlier case, his argument still fails. It fails because Magluta's personal involvement in, or guilt of, the criminal activity charged in the earlier case is not an element of the money laundering charge he was convicted of in this case. This indictment charged Magluta with money laundering in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(1)(B)(i), with the specified unlawful activity being felony drug offenses. The government had to prove that Magluta, with the requisite knowledge and intent, conducted a financial transaction involving the proceeds of felony drug offenses. See Majors, 196 F.3d at 1212. The government did not have to prove, however, that Magluta committed the felony drug offenses. See id. As far as the money laundering statute is concerned, laundering someone else's illegal proceeds is just as bad as laundering your own — there is no help-thy-neighbor exception to § 1956(a)(1)(B)(i). Accordingly, the collateral estoppel effect of Magluta's 1996 acquittal of illegal drug activity does not extend to any of the essential elements of the money laundering charges on which he was convicted in this case.
Magluta challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support his convictions on the eight substantive money laundering counts. While phrased in sufficiency of the evidence terms, Magluta's actual challenge here raises the issue of whether the relevant facts, which are essentially undisputed, constitute money laundering. As we have mentioned, Magluta was convicted of money laundering conducted for the purpose of concealing the nature, location, source, ownership, or control of the illegal drug proceeds, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(1)(B)(i). The charges and evidence...
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